Friday, May 24, 2013

How many Americans have served the nation, threatened with horrible combat death? Many did not return, and each death disfigures many lives. Some suffer massive injury, and we celebrate their sacrifice. But such words are too easy to say -- Walk in a military graveyard: even in properly maintained grounds, the dead are largely forgotten. The world moves on.

These days few people look with understanding at elders who sacrificed so much.

Sadly, such places as Korea or Germany would prefer to forget...Tens of thousands of young people were butchered. It's an insult -- America's youth was tasked to protect lands now ashamed of their efforts.

Entergy should not be allowed to operate as a limited liability corporation. Entergy's owners (board and shareholders) should be liable for all future damages, including threat of garnishing personal property and retroactive wages.

It is wrong that the U.S. Government has a kill list. It is wrong for U.S. government bureaucrats to assassinate people, whether citizens or foreigners, without due process of law.

Personally, I believe capital punishment is unacceptable. But among those supporting state executions, most people would demand a transparent judicial process as prerequisite.

Unknown unnamed bureaucrats secretly deciding who to kill is outrageous. There is no accountability, and there've been admitted mistakes. The USA has gone rabidly rogue. Governments collaborating with the USA share murder guilt.

The educational system in the USA needs investment, but selfish wealthy resist taxation. Ultimately, offering education & opportunity is far cheaper than trying to imprison the many dissatisfied with a flim-flam system of fraud and corruption.

Crony capitalism burdens America.

Newt Gingrich & Mitt Romney never cared a rat's ass for anyone. The only reason they'd slow down seeing someone in distress is to pick valuables from your carcass.

Teachers are painted as the enemies of education. We've each been helped more by teachers than by school building construction firms or school equipment companies - it's stupid to assault teachers. Big media, who lead the attacks, never helped any of us; rupert murdoch & family are assholes. Don't support that sourpuss. Turn off his media streams. Invest in your own neighborhood.

President Obama generated great ideas when a candidate, but he's still on five year vacation. He's now done plenty for wealthy folk, and squat for the rest of us.

The big capitalists of GM, Ford, Goldman-Sachs, JPMorgan, etc. get public subsidies and no-interest loans; while working university students, factory workers supporting family, restaurant employees struggling to pay a mortgage, get exhaust blasts of capitalist pig flatus.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Battling accountability, truth & consequences, the Obama administration has strayed into despotism. They wage endless barbaric military operations around the world, undeclared wars of assassination & mass terror, buttressing satellite tyrants who control their populace with our machinery. They funnel our public funds to prop-up & subsidize well-connected private firms, damaging our system of enterprise accountability. They persecute their own government people who uncover / publicize government crimes. Clearly the US government is now corrupt at the core.

Obama is (was?) a constitutional lawyer. But he's disgraced himself. Obama has systematically undermined the US Constitution he swore to protect & defend. He's pursued & imprisoned whistleblowers for espionage as Enemies of the State, while allowing the far-reaching crimes they exposed to continue: unimpeded, unregulated & unpunished.

Some of the messengers harassed or imprisoned by Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder & the US Justice Dept. include:

On request from the production company, Betnér's edited his blog and deleted the sketch after one day. He claims regret at not posting the script sooner -- it might have been changed. Perhaps it will air as below next Saturday? The script was still online today at:

Pretty lame mocking of Sweden. Does such trash effect the millions of Eurovision Song Contest viewers knowing little else of Sweden? Here's the script:

---------------------------------------------------------

EXT - SQUARE IN SWEDISH TOWN - DAY The REPORTER is standing
on a square somewhere in Sweden.
The wind is blowing in his hair. It looks cold and damp.

REPORTER After spending several
weeks in Sweden,
I've begun to get an idea as to what the Swedish people are really like. They
are perhaps the loneliest people in the world. This may sound sad, but the
Swedes themselves are not at all unhappy about this.

INT - APARTMENT - DAY The reporter is in a flat. A female is
in the background.

REPORTER The old fashioned family
is becoming somewhat unusual in Sweden,
as more and more Swedes nowadays are either single or divorced.

FACT GRAPHICS Over 40% of the Swedish population live in
single households.

INT - APARTMENT - DAY (CONT.)

REPORTER The Swedes tend to see
great advantages to living alone. For instance, in an old fashioned family,
there are quarrels: Who did not do the dishes? Who left their dirty laundry on
the floor? In Sweden,
this is very simple...

SINGLE WOMAN (HAPPY) It must be
me! I'm the only one who lives here!

EXT - OUTSIDE ROSENBAD - DAY The reporter walks outside the
government headquarters.

REPORTER In those cases where
the Swedes DO still live in traditional families, both parents take
responsibility for the upbringing of the children. In fact, parenting is
something that Swedish people take extremely seriously.

INT - SITUATION ROOM PÅ ROSENBAD - DAY A group of serious
men and women are seated around a table. One woman in uniform calls the prime
minister on his phone.

DEFENSE MINISTER Mister Prime Minister, Norway
has declared a war on Sweden!
PRIME MINISTER (ON THE PHONE) I see. But why are
you calling me? I am on parental leave.

EXT - OUTSIDER ROSENBAD - DAY (CONT.)

REPORTER "Pappaledig", "föräldraförsäkring", "vabbing". Just like the Eskimos have
a hundred words for snow, the Swedes have a hundred expressions for
"Childcare benefit".

FACT GRAPHICS “Vabbing = taking care of a sick child”.

EXT – OLD TOWN IN STOCKHOLM
– DAY

REPORTER Sweden was the first country in the world to ban corporal
punishment in raising a child. In fact, not even foreign tourists are allowed
to hit their children.

An Italian family is standing on the street. The oldest son
is teasing his younger brother. The dad gets angry.

ITALIAN DAD Merda bambino!

The Italian dad raises his hand towards his son, but then
remembers where he is and looks around. He sees a POLICE OFFICER . The dad
pulls his son closer and whispers.

ITALIAN DAD When we getta home,
I wille give you 18 000 slaps in the face!

EXT - ON THE STREET - DAY The reporter walks along a street.

REPORTER (CONT.) The Swedes are
extremely equal. There are almost no hierarchies to speak of and most work
places use a so called "flat organization". However, this lack of
leadership can sometimes cause confusion.

EXT - AFGHANISTAN
- DAY A group of soldiers are in Afghanistan, in the middle of the
war. They are wearing blue berets and Swedish flags on their UN-uniforms. The
commander is shouting instructions.

COMMANDER All right, we're not
in Sweden
anymore, this is the real deal! Attack on the count of three! One, two - wait,
did you want to say something? The commander suddenly turns to one of the
soldiers.

SOLDIER 1 Yes, I think we should
attack from another angle...

COMMANDER Interesting point.
Anyone else? Maybe we should vote...

Suddenly the COMMANDER is shot dead by enemy fire.

EXT - CHURCH YARD - DAY First, we see a CLOSE UP of a grave
stone, that could be the commander in the last scene. Then, we see The
Reporter, who walks along a path through a church yard.

REPORTER The average Swede does
not believe in God. On the other hand, he or she DOES believe that they will
work less next year and have more time with their families, that sitting too
close to the TV may lead to blindness, and that everything will be fine once
they move to a new home.

PICTURES A happy family sits around a table playing a board
game. A child is sitting extremely close to the TV-screen. A young couple and a
real estate dealer walks into a large, bright apartment.

INT - CHURCH - DAY Inside the church, a priest is preaching.
The Reporter is sitting in the back of the church, whispering.

REPORTER A modern Swedish priest
sounds much like a semi-intellectual 28-year- old who had too much wine...

PRIEST I don't know, this thing
with Jesus. I believe in some kind of higher power, it's like this feeling I
have, you know like...

REPORTER (CONT.) Swedes have
about the same attitude to their priest that they have to their chiropractor.
As long as they're fine they stay away. But when there's a problem, they come
crawling back.

EXT - ON THE STREET - DAY

REPORTER (FORTS.) The Swede will
always avoid a conflict. In fact, traditional insults have no effect on Swedish
people. They will simply take it literally.

Two men are arguing on the street.
One of them is French, the other one is a typical Swede.

FRENCH MAN I fucked your mother!

The Swede is suddenly surprised.

TYPICAL SWEDE What? Really?
That's fantastic! Good for her! She hasn't had much of a sex life since the
divorce from dad. What a lovely surprise!

The reporter is observing from a distance, then continuing.

REPORTER (CONT.) In many ways,
Swedish people are extremely tolerant, for instance towards sexual minorities.
In Sweden,
"fag" is not an insult. But "Homophobe" certainly is...

EXT - FOOTBALL ARENA - DAY A cheer section of the football
audience is chanting.
AUDIENCE The referee is a
homophobe, homophobe, homophobe...

EXT - THE STREET - DAY

REPORTER In conclusion, The
World Value Survey seems to be right. The Swedes are indeed an extreme people.
They are extremely isolated and lonely, but at the same time extremely caring
and tolerant. This odd combination naturally leads to much suppressed
frustration. So where do the Swedes let out their desires and aggressions?
Well... Abroad. In your countries.

The Reporter looks into the camera and smiles.

EXT/INT - ABROAD - DAY/NIGHT Archive pictures of Swedes that
are drunk and behaving badly. They are standing on tables naked, puking etc.

EXT - THE STREET - DAY

REPORTER EXTREMELY fascinating,
isn't it? And yet we've still only scratched the surface. Thank you for
watching and good night.

Monday, May 13, 2013

The bombing of the Boston Marathon has given the US government security apparatus more powers to combat terrorism.

But these government security services & our corrupt politicians are America's biggest threat. Our own government has been a costly scourge on America for decades.

Let's consider the threat of being killed or maimed for no good reason. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the American establishment was drafting young men against their will, roughing them up to be soldiers, and dropping them in the mud & jungles of Southeast Asia. All were brutalized, many were slaughtered. A generation later, similar tragedies are constructed across the Middle East. What's most terrible is that shady strategists convince halfwit chicken-shits like George W. Bush and Barack Obama to dump our people into horrendous conditions without good reason. We need accountability for the corruption & brutality embedded in past & present US administrations.

Then we have terror at home. Search online for mistaken police shooting and get millions of hits. Notice that America's growth industry is law enforcement & maintaining the punishment gulag. Deliberately intimidating Federal forces harshly threaten all Americans. Terrible!

This stinks. Having the U.S. President as a good buddy probably helps, but this seems a systemic problem rather than favoritism to one individual.

Except maybe "Kenny boy" Lay didn't truly die. He was only 64 years old. Maybe the weasel will be at Eurovision next weekend. He can afford front row seats, but look in row 12 (he'll strive to be inconspicuous).

But corporate bloodsucking is much more pervasive than the Disney scam. Many other beloved corporations infringe on our language, minds and culture by taking words & images already existing and grabbing exclusivity for themselves. Many corporations add nothing - they just capitalize a common generic dictionary word:

apple

target

caterpillar

amazon

dell

intel

oracle

staples

whirlpool

progressive

southern

gap

mosaic

... etc...

Why are we unable to get royalties for appropriating our words & images? Quite the opposite - our impoverished communities are soon begging at the corporate backdoor looking for 'charity' from these pirates...

I despise the pervasiveness of electrical and phone wires in & across public areas. It's a filthy infringement. Let's demand ugly wires be put underground.

A wider struggle is appropriation of public space for advertising. Hawaii, Maine, Vermont & Alaska ban roadside billboards - only four out of fifty US states, but a good start...

Don't accept being duped & used as corporate tools. We can be pirates as well. Alternately, we can work to create better communities and a more-solid sense of camaraderie and fun in humane neighborhoods. To improve surrounding conditions, we must recognize & challenge the worst parasites in our midst.

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

No Americans have been legally punished for waging an aggressive war in Vietnam. (No Frenchies either...). The USA invaded a small, rural, largely pre-industrial region and burnt it, smashed it, murdered ...

We left over 500,000 dead. The Vietnam Butchery was responsible for some two million casualties overall in terms of dead & wounded. Many more, tens of millions home & away, were otherwise scarred and brutalized. To what benefit?

We make vile conflict noble if poorly-camouflaged butchery is labeled war.

Who shipped American grunts to the mud of Asia? Most of the worst American butchers died in soft beds, mourned as planner statesmen & fine leaders. A few mangy individuals survive (such as Rumsfeld & Cheney), but they'll soon join their Dark Lord - withered debris pruned by nature.

Monday, May 06, 2013

Nuclear disarmament has been a parallel process to nuclear non-proliferation. The nuclear-weapon states have promised to work toward disarmament. In exchange for eventual nuclear disarmament, other states have promised not to develop nuclear weaponry.

Nuclear disarmament is an excellent goal. Although verification is a continuing challenge, the requirements of safety and security are good counterbalances, making complete secrecy difficult to achieve. There's always danger of serious accident, and improper handling will one day perhaps lead to major disaster.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs have been key focal points for progress with nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. But the few states with nuclear weapons have failed to follow-through with their obligations.

Working life can be healthy & productive; teamwork toward a better world. But too many workers are unable to find such jobs. Instead they accept poor work with little opportunity. Such labor can quickly mire a worker into a cycle of permanent dependence. They're then highly susceptible to depression and illness; families & communities also suffer.

Employers are hurt when labor cannot be trusted. An entitlement or victimization mentality among workers can fester for years as a sour attitude and lack of job loyalty, but also erupt as a crippling lawsuit that closes an enterprise and puts everyone out of work. No society can operate long with a large proportion of wretched poor. President Obama has sadly devalued the word "hope" -- but aspiration must somehow be nurtured throughout society.

The Nordic model of workplace health has developed from solidly-grounded education. Sweden's Social Democrats, for all their problems, built a far-sighted system of community organization in support of basic human rights. The more egocentric & mercenary Moderate Party now pushes privatization. Plum benefits then accrue naturally to the wealthy & well-connected. Pervasive merchandizers peddle dreams - and often don't deliver as promised. Our communities become "buyer beware" zones - with more choice and more scams. All painfully learn to be guarded, cautious consumers. Fortunately, Sweden's foundations are not too easily eroded.